Maybe it's the holiday season that has big corporations in a giving mood this month, but there's definitely something in the air that's spreading the love of open source software. Whatever it is, Hewlett-Packard caught wind of it last week and flipped the open source switch on webOS, and now Nvidia is announcing plans to provide the source code for the new CUDA LLVM-based compiler to academic researchers and software-tool vendors to help make it easier to add GPU support for more programming languages and support CUDA applications on alternative processor architectures[......]
The Federal Communications Commission is in the process of implementing the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act . Passed by Congress last year, the CCVA requires the FCC revise its rules to mandate closed captioning on IP television, and the Commission is running a proceeding on how to implement the law. Not surprisingly, copyright questions are coming up fast in discussions between the agency and video providers, especially when it comes to enhancing captions in various ways. [......]
Without a major revision in over a decade (13 years, to be exact), it seemed that C++ had become a forgotten programming language among a new generation of developers, or at the very least it has been tremendously overshadowed by JavaScript, Python, and other trendier languages. But look out, because C++ is making a comeback. A new standard called C++11 received unanimous approval from the ISO C++ standards committee and is expected to be published within the year, according to Herb Sutter, the committee's chairman. [......]
One thing most 30-something people in tech have in common is video gaming nostalgia. Generation X (and Generation i ) can go on for hours discussing the merits of our favorite Nintendo games, our programming experience in school, and of course our beloved Ataris[......]
This guest post was written by Kovas Boguta , Head of Analytics at Weebly . [......]
Software programmers make the virtual world go round, but just how much do they get paid? This is what the guys over at adtmag.com set out to answer, and the results might just surprise you.[......]
By Ed Oswald , Betanews The final comment period before the Federal Communications Commission makes its ruling on whether or not to approve the Comcast-NBC Universal merger ended on Thursday, and opponents made one last effort to stop it in its tracks. Comcast fought off those complaints, calling them "nothing more than preexisting or industry-wide grievances" that should not be part of the decision to approve the merger[......]
Microsoft has announced a drag-and-drop, visual programming tool called Visual Studio LightSwitch. A stand alone product to begin with, the latest member of the Visual Studio family will eventually be available in future versions of Visual Studio. The tool is meant to enable business users to rapidly develop and deploy business applications regardless of the development skills or programming know-how at their disposal.[......]
By Tim Conneally , Betanews The move to form a joint venture between cable company Comcast and content network NBC Universal has been extended by 135 days. Today, William T. Lake, of the FCC Media Bureau announced that the application process, which was originally slated to take no more than 180 days, has been restarted at Day 45 after Comcast and NBCU submitted renewed responses[......]
By Scott M. Fulton, III , Betanews As IE6 and IE7 users throughout Europe turn on their Windows Vista- and XP-based computers to notice, for the first time, the opportunity to switch Web browsers from Microsoft Internet Explorer to something they may have never heard of, their manufacturers are preparing for an influx of new customers[......]
The SANS Institute and Mitre have assembled a group of security experts  from more than 30 organizations to put pressure on software vendors to do a better job at releasing secure code. "Nearly every attack is enabled by [programming] mistakes that provide a handhold of attackers," said Alan Paller, director of research at SANS, a security training and certification group based in Bethseda, MD. "The only way programming errors can be eradicated is by making software development organizations legally liable for the errors," he said[......]
